This comes ahead of yet to be specified “firm regulatory actions” against DBS Bank and the Singapore branches of UBS and Standard Chartered Bank, The Straits Times reported today.
The authority was said to have found in its probe, “that certain financial institutions were used as ‘conduits’ for a complex international web of transactions involving multiple entities and individuals operating in jurisdictions including Singapore, the US and Hong Kong.”
According to the report, the three banks also had “instances of control failings and in some cases, weaknesses, in the processes for accepting clients and monitoring transactions.”
“Undue delays” were also found on the part of the banks in detecting and reporting suspicious transactions.
“The deficiencies in DBS, StanChart and UBS related to lapses in specific processes and by individual officers,” MAS was quoted as saying by the Singapore daily.
However, no “pervasive control weaknesses or staff misconduct” were revealed in the probe.
Besides the three banks, Falcon Private Bank’s branch here and remittance agent Raffles Money Change (RMC) were also reprimanded for weak management oversight, as well as inadequate risk management practices and internal controls.
MAS had previously ordered 1MDB-linked BSI Bank’s Singapore branch to shut down for “serious breaches of anti-money laundering requirements, poor management oversight of the bank’s operations and gross misconduct by some of the bank’s staff”.
The latest move came following the lawsuits filed by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) yesterday in which it was stated that over USD3.5 billion was misappropriated from state investment firm 1MDB.
In its lawsuits, filed in Los Angeles, the DoJ said it was seeking to seize assets allegedly purchased with money stolen from 1MDB, including penthouses, mansions, artwork, a private jet and proceeds from the “Wolf of Wall Street” movie.
The DoJ also alleged that offences were committed over a four-year period involving many individuals, including Malaysian officials and their associates, who conspired to fraudulently divert billions of dollars from 1MDB.
It specifically named Riza Aziz, who is Prime Minister Najib Razak’s stepson, Low Taek Jho (better known as Jho Low), and Abu Dhabi government officials Khadem al-Qubaisi and Mohamed Ahmed Badawy Al-Husseiny.